UNHCR begins annual consultation with NGO partners

UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Craig Johnstone speaks at the opening of the refugee agency's annual consultations with NGOs.

GENEVA, September 26 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency on Wednesday began annual consultations with representatives of some 200 non-governmental organizations who play a vital role in helping UNHCR meet the needs of millions of uprooted people around the world.

More than 300 delegates representing large and small, national and international NGOs from around the world will focus largely on the theme of partnership during the three-day gathering, which both sides regard as a vital part of their relationship.

"This is very important for me in my capacity as president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC)," said Abdul Rahman Attar, adding: "This meeting has given me a chance to talk to lots of NGOs and explain to them how they can work with Syria with the cooperation of UNHCR."

The SARC is mandated to look after all 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria and has played a key role in ensuring that UNHCR programmes reach the most needy among them.

"The main objective of the meeting is to ensure that we are working effectively with the NGO community and that the needs of the refugees and the internally displaced people in the world are being met," said UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Craig Johnstone, who opened the meeting.

Johnstone said the annual gathering was very important for UNHCR. "If we didn't have this kind of dialogue, things would start to fall apart in the field and the refugees would be disadvantaged as a result. So we attach a great deal of importance to the partnership with the NGO community."

In his opening address, Johnstone briefed participants on "a very active reform under way at UNHCR," including decentralization and better management of its budget. "Nimbleness is one of our objectives," he noted. He outlined areas where further improvements were needed, while also suggesting how NGOs could help improve the relationship – including timely audits and progress reports on projects.

The NGO consultations provide an important forum to raise issues, network, and exchange views with UNHCR. Aside from partnership, other special themes of this year's meeting include "Next Steps in Durable Solutions" and "Special Situation Focuses."

The NGO consultations will be followed next week by the annual gathering of UNHCR's governing body, the Executive Committee, or ExCom. Since 1997, NGOs have participated in UNHCR's Executive and Standing Committees as observers.

For the past two decades, the annual consultations have brought together NGOs and UNHCR managers to examine all aspects of their partnership on behalf of the world's uprooted people.

NGOs are vital partners for UNHCR, implementing programmes for refugees and IDPs in some of the world's most remote and difficult places. In all, about a quarter of UNHCR's resources are channelled through its partners. The UN refugee agency works with more than 500 NGOs worldwide.

Iraq Crisis: Finding a Place to Stay

Tens of thousands of people have fled to Erbil and Duhok governorates in Iraq's Kurdistan region over the past week, sheltering in schools, mosques, churches and temporary camps following a surge of violence in parts of central and northern Iraq. UNHCR and its partners have been working to meet the urgent shelter needs. The refugee agency has delivered close to 1,000 tents to a transit camp being built by the authorities and NGOs at Garmawa, near Duhok.

Many of the people arriving from Mosul at checkpoints between Ninewa and governorate and Iraq's Kurdistan region have limited resources and cannot afford to pay for shelter. Some people stay with family, while others are staying in hotels and using up their meagre funds.

In the village of Alqosh, some 150 people from 20 families, with little more than the clothes on their back, have been living in several overcrowded classrooms in a primary school for the past week. One member of the group said they had lived in a rented apartment in Mosul and led a normal family life. But in Alqosh, they feared for the welfare and education of their children and the presence of snakes and scorpions.

Iraq Crisis: Finding a Place to Stay

South Sudan: Preparing for Long-Awaited Returns

The signing of a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and the army of the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement on 9 January, 2005, ended 21 years of civil war and signaled a new era for southern Sudan. For some 4.5 million uprooted Sudanese – 500,000 refugees and 4 million internally displaced people – it means a chance to finally return home.

In preparation, UNHCR and partner agencies have undertaken, in various areas of South Sudan, the enormous task of starting to build some basic infrastructure and services which either were destroyed during the war or simply had never existed. Alongside other UN agencies and NGOs, UNHCR is also putting into place a wide range of programmes to help returnees re-establish their lives.

These programs include road construction, the building of schools and health facilities, as well as developing small income generation programmes to promote self-reliance.

South Sudan: Preparing for Long-Awaited Returns

Dollow: Help inside Somalia

Dollow is a dusty Somali border town with a bridge, 3 km from the Dollo Ado refugee camps across the river in Ethiopia. But many of Dollow's most recent inhabitants are internally displaced people (IDPs) who have no intention of crossing the bridge - constructed with UNHCR's help over 20 years ago - to seek humanitarian assistance. Displaced by drought and famine from the Somali regions of Gedo, Bay and Bakool, these agro-pastoralists overwhelmingly express their wish to return home if the seasonal rains come in October and it is safe to do so.

UNHCR and other UN agencies are providing aid through a variety of local NGOs. Shelter, emergency assistance packages and dry food rations are being distributed while a wet feeding centre provides much-needed sustenance to the estimated 2,000 IDPs in Dollow.

Dollow: Help inside Somalia

Lebanon: Rush to Arsal

The bombardment of the Syrian city of Yabroud has driven thousands of refugees across the mountains into the Lebanese town of Arsal. UNHCR and its partners, including Lebanese NGOs, are working to find shelter for the newly arrived.